“Japan has turned into a US point-of-sale leisure market with the yen hitting at 160 [yen per US dollar],” said Glen William Hauenstein, the President of Delta Air Lines, at the company’s Q2 2024 Earnings Call held on July 11, 2024.
Hauenstein highlighted the Japanese market alongside the European market when asked by a Morgan Stanley analyst about the reasons the airline believes it will see strong demand for international flights through the fall. “…so we have really record numbers of US tourists heading to Japan, which is such a great destination. And that, again, that has a very strong fall season,” he continued.
“US and Japan business is quite strong. It has been since the end of the pandemic. And what we’ve seen is really a new Japan as a destination market. I think when the yen was 83, it was very difficult to be able to afford to go see Japan and all the great things that Japan has to offer.” started Hauenstein when asked to expand on the topic by a Bloomberg reporter.
“With the yen at 160, it’s a very different world for US travelers and they seem to be taking great advantage of that,” he finished.
Tokyo Haneda is currently the only airport in Japan served by Delta Air Lines. The airline connects it with Atlanta, Detroit, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle.
While Japan has been enjoying an inbound tourism boom due to the weak yen, outbound tourism has been in a slump due to the same reason.
